Thing 13: Librarything

I found librarything interesting. It's a neat little way to share with other friends and other people what you're reading. I can see uses for this for libraries too.

If you wanted to compile lists of books that librarians recommend for patrons, there you go. You can use it to put out recommendations for parents for their kids. I know I stop in down out at youth services department around christmas time to ask what's popular with the kids so I can by Christmas presents for my friends' children.
With this site...I might not have to ask them anymore. I could find reading lists for kids. But also, if libraries have a "What's popular" list...that's great too.

I will definitely be using this to organize my own library of books, which is actually much smaller since I moved two years ago. It's so hard to let go of books when you move. But sometimes, there's just not enough room to cram them all into your car.

As far as the local feature...I'm not sure how useful it is for the library. On a personal level...I FOUND my library on it.

Thing 12: Wikis

I can still remember, not so very long ago, going to my college's library for orientation. I'm not sure why every one of my English teachers wanted to make sure we understood how to use a library for research.

I can still remember the librarian talking about Wikipedia. "Don't use it!"
"Anyone can add information into wikipedia articles and while some people may be knowledgeable experts in their fields, Marlene's, from down the street, crazy Uncle Ned also has access to the site and can edit however he chooses."


That said...Wikipedia is one of my favorite places to go for first level research. There's SO much information there in one spot it's just the easiest first place to look when I'm wanting to know something completely random. If it's for something important, I'll take that info, look for the sources and then do further research on it to ensure whatever I found is a valid fact or just some random tidbit crazy Uncle Ned put in.

I still don't think there's anything wrong with banning Wikipedia from research. I found ways around using it when I was in college. Like I said...first level.
I found the info I wanted from it. Then found alternate sources to use for references that the teachers would find acceptable.
I think doing that helps students learn to find multiple sources of information to ensure the accuracy of what you learn.

I played around some with the meta:sandbox. I only tagged it really.

Ultimately, Wiki good. Delicious still BAAAADDDdddd!

Thing 11: Social Media

WOW...
I've gotten way behind. NEFLIN is on thing 19, I'm still WAY back here. Good thing I've got the week off from classes and the first week will be light. I figure if I post a thing a day, I'll be caught up by the time this thing is over.

LOL
("Laughing out loud" for those acronymically challenged.)

I do want to update on thing 10 before I continue on with thing 11.
Delicious-
While at first it did seem awesome...It had hijacked my tab key and my ability to C&P in most windows. I'm currently trying to figure out how to get rid of the program that I installed into my browser. As soon as I figure how to get rid of the peskiness that is delicious I'll let you all know.
DOWN WITH DELICIOUS!

******

Read Terminator two meets that movie with Ally Sheedie
Or this one...about dinner saving a classroom. (Yes, they still eat guinea pigs in Peru.)

Articles like this one, while entertaining, make me fear for the future of information. I guess I fear more the contributions of everyday people than from legitimate news sources.
I'm sure if my brother could figure out how to, he'd be contributing crap like "Toads explode after being filled with firecrackers," along with video footage.
Maybe I'm being a little extreme, but I don't put much stock in social media outside of the entertainment value. Part of it being..."Wow...someone has too much time on their hands."

I wouldn't really want to use these tools in my library unless someone called up and said "HELP! I'm really depressed and need something to make me laugh! What do you suggest?"
Really, social media is nothing more than a productivity detractor.

By the way, if you have any free time (Don't watch these while you're working, seriously. Productivity detractor, remember?) I found these courtesy of reddit.

Exercise ball revenge.

Thing 10: Delicious

Wow.

I did not know of the existence of this kind of site before 23 things.
My mind is bursting with the possibilities of this web 2.0 tool. I mean, information sharing among friends, among classmates, research tools, coworkers...
it's just endless.

I imported my bookmarks to my account and now I have the daunting task (because I'm horrible about cleaning up my bookmarks) of organizing it.
Thankfully, it kept my bookmark folders as tags, so a good chunk will be easy to sort through and see if the sites are active and relevant. Of course, I have 87 tags and over a thousand bookmarks to go through.

I do some online RPGs and write lots of short stories, so I have research bookmarks for all the characters and whatever was needed for the stories.
I guess you could say my bookmarks are kind of like cable TV 800 channels and nothing on. LOL

I can't wait to make some public research bookmarks for my friends, though. I'm trying to keep them in the loop of these great internet tools.

Thing 9

I've created some presentations.
Here is a slideshow I made on the ZOHO site.




This picture slideshow I made on Picturetrail.

The database tool wouldn't work for me, which was disappointing. I think it had the potential to be very useful in a lot of areas.

***

The presentation tool was the one I was very interested in exploring. I have a class starting in April and one of the requirements is to create presentation about the books read for the class. I have some experience with powerpoint, but I wanted to research other choices.

I'm still disappointed I can't get the database tool to work. I waited a few days to see if they'd get it up. I think it's just permanently down. I notified the people running the page that I could not create a database and I'm waiting to hear back from them.

Both Zoho and picture trail were easy to use. I enjoyed myself as I played around with the different features.

Thing 8

1. I've been using IM for almost ten years now. I was introduced to IM with AOL. I eventually added on ICQ and then discovered trillian.
Trllian is similar to Meebo(I think) there is another program as well that collects all your IMs into one place, but I can't think of the name off the top of my head.
Until this Thing I didn't realize there were other programs that did had this feature. I never liked the way Trillian was set up, so I'll have to look into these other programs (When I get my new computer, that is. It's hard when you only have 3GB of disk space left on your computer!!)

I've used many versions of AIM(AOL Instant Messenger) and am fond of their older programs. I guess I'm a simplistic IMer. All the new fancy doo-dads don't do anything for me.

2. TEXT MESSAGING
I ABHOR test messaging. I can't stomp my feet hard enough and scream it loud enough!
I hate cell phones to begin with. I have one. I use it.
But it's my opinion that text messaging is used primarily to "sneak" communication. Kids use it in class, people sneak in text messages while they're working, and WORSE...
I've seen people use it while they're DRIVING!

-There was a really bad car accident that I read about in the paper a few years back in NY. Four teenage girls in an SUV. The driver lost control of the vehicle and it rolled. All the girls died. During the investigation, the police found that the driver received a text message less than a minute before the time of the crash. It was believed the text messaging distracted her and was the cause of the crash.-

I've told friends who have my cell number not to text me unless it can be answered with "yes," "no," "ok," or it doesn't have to be answered at all. And if I don't respond, not to take it personally.

3. I don't know a lot about web conferencing and haven't really experienced anything like that before. Most of the links provided for this thing either are PDF documents, which my computer doesn't like so I don't open unless it's a vital necessity that I do so, or for some reason don't like firefox.
So, this brings me to a rant I have and am going to share with anyone who reads this...

rant
You(generically) are creating something you want to communicate to a broad range of people. Why would you create it so that it's run best with a certain browser?
What about ALL those people who have macs?
Or prefer another browser over internet explorer? OR whose IE doesn't run properly?
HHMMMM?

If you're going to create some piece of web communication, no matter what it is, it should be made so that everyone can access it!
/rant

All that said,
I want to add one last thing.
Emails.
We use them at my library and they are a LIFE SAVER!
I work nights and my direct supervisors are usually gone by the time I come in. Emails allow us to converse on subjects of importance. They can leave me emails about pertinent things that need to be accomplished during my shift or reminders about everything under the sun.
plus, emails are more environmentally friendly than paper.
I have my personal library account sent up to send me email notices for reserves and overdues so that we need not ever receive paper in the mail.
Saves paper, and envelope and stamp!

Thing 7: Online Image Generators

Now...before we even start this blog entry...
while I don't have the time, I do have the talent to do my own graphics. I've been working with photoshop for around ten years now. My best friend's husband is a graphic artist, and I house sat for them one year. That's when my love affair with graphic arts started. I don't have a degree or anything, but ten years intensive experience with a program should substitute on some level, right?

I'm going to go on next to what this entire blog entry is about (maybe I should have started there.)
Online image generators...
They do save a lot of time.



Now...before we even start this blog entry...
while I don't have the time, I do have the talent to do my own graphics. I've been working with photoshop for around ten years now. My best friend's husband is a graphic artist, and I house sat for them one year. That's when my love affair with graphic arts started. I don't have a degree or anything, but ten years intensive experience with a program should substitute on some level, right?

I'm going to go on next to what this entire blog entry is about (maybe I should have started there.)
Online image generators...
They do save a lot of time.

Letter James
It wasn't all that great. It's really limited as far as your choices go. And they don't host the image for over 24 hours. So it's pretty much snag and upload yourself.


I liked Image Chef. Again, it was simplistic, but there were a LOT more choices.




Now, I bet you're wondering were the picture at the top came from, aren't you?
It's one of my pictures that I altered at Big Huge Labs using their Hockneyizer toy.
I've always been a fan of Hockney and have been working on a project where I actually...do it myself, by hand.
I was curious to see how well it worked and I'm rather impressed with that little gadget.
They have a huge selection of toys and things to do with images there.
It was loads of fun and have spent WAY too much time lately working on it.
(And YES! That is one of my pictures I hockneyized)